HOW TO WIN A $1000 SCHOLARSHIP OR JUST HAVE FUN

Do you realize that, as a person, you are not only different from all others but are a special product of countless ancestors who have left their unique marks on you?

Families often have noticed that certain unique traits and characteristics become evident in various descendants over the decades. Identical twins, when raised in different families in different environments, still reflect each other’s similar characteristics. Now, with the discoveries about DNA and genes and the human genome, scientists have developed estimates of the percentage of human personality traits that can be ascribed to a person’s ancestors.

That is significant – but far more important than genes, say the scientists -- are environment and childhood experiences in shaping one’s personality. The same is true of a city. The very special nature of our city reflects the actions of men and women living here in our city’s youth in the 1700s and 1800s and during its growth. Their decisions helped shape the notable “personality” and distinctive cultural heritage of San Antonio.

The American author and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “There is properly no history, only biography.”

In his book about his family’s long history in Mexico and San Antonio – Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation -- John Phillip Santos wrote: “Where did our forebears come from and what have we amounted to in this world? Where have we come to in the span of all time, and where are we headed, like an arrow shot long ago into infinite empty space? What messages and markings of the ancient past do we carry in these handed-down bodies we live in today?”

Whether your ancestors were Hispanic, German, Irish, Italian, African or in any other cultural group from anywhere in the world, you probably can find members of your group involved in making San Antonio’s history sometime between the 1700s and today. Even if your ancestors were not involved in fashioning San Antonio’s heritage, any San Antonio cultural group that interests you will surely have rich sources to read about and people and events to describe for others.

Suppose you were asked if you would like to write an essay or create a drawing or painting or computer-assisted art that would explain some of the good things you feel about your “cultural heritage” or any other in the city’s history? Probably some of your relatives and friends would enjoy reading that.

What if you decided on your own some day that you would like to make a record of your feelings about the good things your cultural group in San Antonio has contributed to making ours a better city? Could you find out what year or years the cultural group first came to San Antonio? Do you know what some of them were doing many years ago? Who were some of the outstanding men or women among them?  What mark did they leave on our city? Your discoveries would be a gift to your whole family and relatives -- to your children and nieces and nephews

This kind of quest for one’s ties to a cultural group is already being rewarded by an annual program for all Bexar County students in grades sixth through twelfth. Two contests – one for essays and one for visual art – are conducted every year by the San Antonio Founders Day Alliance, the Alamo Community College District Foundation and the University of the Incarnate Word.  Students in each of seven grades are given the opportunity to win a $1,000 scholarship for artfully explaining “How the history and heritage of a cultural group have contributed to San Antonio.”

Deadline for completion is February 29, 2008, but one can begin right now to get a head start by reading history – to get ahead of the game.

For their entries to qualify for the scholarship, students are expected to show how their essay or art reflects their study of one or more histories of their own or another cultural group. If they want to mention a family member as a source, they must also emphasize the family’s role in the history of its cultural group. This information must come from respected books and other sources, including authentic Internet sources.

The reason for this is that the program is designed to inspire and motivate students to read more. History shows that people usually cannot achieve their goal of living well without being able to read well, learn well, work well, and earn well.  A better life begins with reading.

Where must the knowledge-seekers begin?  Where would you begin your search for the secrets in your past, beginning with the heritage of your cultural group?

First, you would have to be sure you knew the meaning of “cultural heritage.” Probably you know that “heritage” refers to what you inherit – what your parents, grandparents or more distant ancestors have left to you that is not property but is mostly stories – in one form or another-- about  your family history. And you’d have to decide with which cultural group you’d want to be identified. 

But what is meant by “cultural” or “culture”? Generally, when we speak of a culture we are referring to a group of people with special histories and traditions and ways of doing things. For example, the way people from different countries have different ways of living and speaking.

A good definition of culture was written by a scholar named George Weigel. He said that culture is “what men and women honor, cherish, and worship; by what societies deem to be true and good, and by the expressions they give to those convictions in language, literature, and the arts; by what individuals and societies are willing to stake their lives on.”

Since San Antonio began nearly 300 years ago, more than twenty cultural groups have come to the city, and each group has brought at least one distinctive gift that has changed the city for the better.

So, if you want to create an interesting essay or drawing or painting or computer-assisted art, the first step is to do some reading and learning about the history of your or another’s cultural group. You should search history sources going back to the time of the cultural group’s first arrival in the San Antonio area. It can be entertaining – like a detective looking everywhere and finding clues. And it will give you the foundation you need for your interesting venture. If you go to a library or bookstore or to the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures or the Internet, you will find quite a bit of information about San Antonio’s cultural groups.

Besides the UTSA Institute, you will find fascinating information and ideas at the Witte Museum, the Museo Alameda del Smithsonian, Fort Sam Houston Museum, San Antonio Museum of Art, Steves Homestead Museum,  Texas Air Museum, Texas Transportation Museum, Buckhorn Museum, McNay Art Museum and others listed on the Internet.

Also visit San Antonio public libraries to see their fact sheets with lists of books and other sources specially related to the history of San Antonio’s cultural and ethnic groups. Also, be sure to look at www.SanAntonioFoundersDay.org for more suggestions on where to find book sources and names of useful Web sites.

Who are the more than 20 cultural groups who shaped the unique character and identity of San Antonio? You would find them if you read a list from the 1970 census of such groups who lived in the city when it reached maturity in 1968. That was the year the city staged a six-month international exposition -- a world fair called HemisFair’68. More than 30 nations participated – each reflecting unique characteristics among a great variety of cultural groups. That year marked the beginning of San Antonio’s two chief industries – tourism and biomedicine/healthcare. 

The 1970 U. S. Census showed that at that time San Antonians were citizens who could trace their foreign or mixed parentage, in order of numbers, to Mexico, Africa, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Greece, Poland, Italy, Ireland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Austria, France, Sweden, China, Japan, Spain, Latin America and a few other countries.

There were 50,041 African Americans, whose descendants’ genes could be traced today through the United States to the continent of Africa. Others came in relatively small numbers – Filipinos, Koreans, Turks, Russians and others.

Some smaller numbers of citizens made enormous and lasting contributions to the city’s characteristics – the French, Irish, Belgians and Jews, for example.

The annual San Antonio Founders Day, held every October in McAllister Auditorium of San Antonio College and San Pedro Springs Park, celebrates the very significant contributions of the largest as well as the most active groups and individuals – and their dates of arrival here. Many have made remarkable contributions -- each in a distinctive and identifiable way. 

We must always remember that the first inhabitants of the San Antonio area were Indians who camped off and on here for centuries and who peopled the first Spanish missions on San Antonio streams, beginning in 1718. And we must not forget the various people from many nations, including lands on the Pacific Rim, Latin America and elsewhere, who have moved here since 1968 and have become deeply involved in San Antonio’s economic, social and cultural life.  

At times, cultural groups have come to San Antonio in fairly large numbers.

Cataclysmic political, economic, and geographic events in Europe (mid-1800s), in Mexico (Mexican Revolution 1910-1920), and in the U. S. (Hurricane Katrina, September 2005) brought thousands of newcomers with distinctive cultural roots to our city. In 1917, Gen. John J. Pershing got federal permission to bring 427 Mexican Chinese to San Antonio to escape retribution for their helping the U. S. during its retaliatory action against an attack by the forces of Francisco (Pancho) Villa.

It is clear that to understand a cultural group’s role in the making of San Antonio, you will have to learn a few basic facts about San Antonio’s history. To begin with, try to find out what is important about the following dates: 1718, 1731, 1836, 1968 and events in several of the decades since then. Of course, that is only a skeleton for the full body of San Antonio’s nearly three centuries under Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America and the United States of America. 

In reading about the history of a cultural group in San Antonio, try to

find information about some of the outstanding individuals in the group’s history. Who are the individual men and women who, sometime since the 1700s, made good things happen for our city as well as for their own cultural group? Who were the heroes in your favorite cultural group? Who were the unsung heroes? Searching through a number of books, you can find much about those very interesting and often inspirational people.

Here are examples of a few of the cultural groups who helped shape San Antonio into a great city that other Texans call their second home town and that people from throughout the nation and the world enjoy visiting.  The brief examples are only hints of much more extensive stories of numerous achievements by more than 20 cultural groups and many outstanding individuals.

Hispanics -- From the 1700s, have given the city its attractive architecture, food, music, arts and spirit of rejoicing. Their culture came from the people of Spain and Mexico. Because of their longest history in the area and their large numbers plus the widespread love of Hispanicity, their culture greatly identifies the city.

U. S. Immigrants -- Beginning in the 1820s, entrepreneurs in business, professions, crafts, ranching and soldiering came to build and defend the growing city. They came from the 22 states and several North American territories of that time. The majority of these newcomers had cultural roots from countries in Europe.

Germans – From 1840 to 1860, large numbers came as craftsmen and professionals to labor in all specialties of the city’s life, where they prospered by notably hard work and a strong spirit of fraternity. Traditions of group singing and feasting fit the city well. .

French – In the 1850s, began opening and managing schools, orphanages and providing hospital care. Some of these institutions exist today as universities and hospitals. The first ice-making plant in San Antonio was opened by a French business man in 1862.

African Americans  --  Have had a strong influence, from the 1800s, on San Antonio’s culinary tastes for Southern Cooking, which is rooted in Africa; on music and dance, on excellence in sports, and maintaining political balance and educational opportunities.

Irish – Beginning in late 1800s, leaders in civic work, commerce, law and banking. The Bryan Callaghan family provided mayors for eighteen years. Mary Margaret Healy-Murphy opened the first day and boarding school for African-American children in 1888.

Jews – Came early and were successful merchants and highly respected as public benefactors and pioneers in popularizing fine music and other arts.

British – Were among leaders in the sheep and wool industry, and the work of architect Alfred Giles can still be seen in many places.

Scots – Typical of many Scottish achievers in San Antonio was Dr. George Cupples, the first president of the Texas Medical Association.

Poles – Polish immigrants came to the first Polish settlement in America -- in Panna Maria, Texas. Some of those moved to San Antonio and contributed to intellectual life.

Italians – Appreciated good food, and obtained fresh fruit, vegetables, spices and herbs for sale and use in their restaurants. They brought a special love of music and the arts. .

Belgians – Specialized in excellent truck farms for vegetables, fruits, nuts and flowers. They established central produce markets.  

The Military – Military personnel have come to San Antonio in large numbers since the 1800s and, while on active duty and as retirees, many assumed important roles in the city as professionals and craftsmen in many capacities. Their worldwide experiences have brought valuable points of view and special management skills to our city.

Those are only a baker’s dozen of the city’s 20+ cultural groups – and only a hint of the story of each group. To which of them do you belong? If not one of those, from what world group do you belong? Or do you belong to more than one? In any case, if you are a student seeking a scholarship you should be able to write an essay or create a drawing or painting or computer-assisted art that expresses what you feel about the history and heritage of any San Antonio cultural group from your distinctive point of view as an individual living in today’s world. If you submit art, you should accompany it with 50 to 100 words explaining its meaning. The essay contest calls for 250 to 700 words.

Every person has a somewhat different view of life. Each of us has a unique vision of the connections to our past. A study of your favorite cultural group’s place in history can help you better understand yourself. Let others enjoy your views on this. Your views will be different.

                                               –Frank W. Jennings, chairman emeritus SAFD.